Southern Valley Recreation Area- UPDATE

October 17, 2018

What’s starting this fall:

The USFS, Teton Basin Ranger District is moving forward with construction of the “C” Trail in the Southern Valley Project Area. This trail will be a 16 ft wide, 5 km (3.1 mi) long Nordic ski trail. It is designed to be a recreational community trail that will be groomed for skate and classic skiing. This trail circumnavigates much of the Nemo singletrack trail crossing it in several locations. Construction of this trail will involve removal of many trees, and cutting a bench to level the trail corridor. The end result of this trail construction will appear very similar to that of an old logging road. The trail will be constructed with heavy equipment operated by the USFS road construction crew–the same crew that just finished the Mike Harris Campground expansion.

How we got here:

The Southern Valley Trail Project went through a major environmental assessment process and was approved for construction in March, 2017 (see Decision Notice here). The scope of work includes nearly 20 miles of new multi-use trails, winter grooming, campground expansion, trailhead improvements with parking amenities, highway underpass and a bridge. Teton Valley Trails and Pathways has been working with a number of partners to make this project a reality. We realized that none of us have designed and built a Nordic trail of this magnitude before, so some professional Nordic trail design help would be beneficial. TVTAP was awarded a grant by the Teton Springs Foundation to fund a professional trail building company, Morton Trails (Salt Lake City), to design the 5km “C” Trail. The design is complete and we are ready for construction.

We will move forward with “C” trail construction this fall until winter weather shuts us down. Grooming on the “C” trail this winter is unlikely. We hope to have the “C” trail construction complete, Campground Trail (winter Nordic classic ski trail) and a plowed parking area/trailhead at Mike Harris for the Winter 2019/2020 season. TVTAP plans to singletrack groom the Lady Slipper trail and also the Nemo trail this winter for fat biking. Users can plan to access the Lady Slipper and Nemo singletrack via the Teton Springs Nordic trailhead, which will have a singletrack trail groomed to the Sherman Springs access point.